Codorníu Cuvée Barcelona

Codorníu Cuvée Barcelona – A Special Sparkle for Christmas and New Year:

There’s nothing quite like a glass of sparkling wine to bring a sense of occasion to the day. This year Codorníu, one of the most famous Cava houses in Spain, has launched a special edition Cava, Codorníu Cuvée Barcelona 1872.

Cava is made using the same method as champagne. But, as it comes from the Penedés region, near Barcelona, the grapes used to make a traditional cava sparkling wine are indigenous Spanish – Macabeo, Xarel•lo and Parellada. The first sparkling wine made this way was created in 1872 by Josep Raventós Fatjó, from the Codorníu. Reason enough to celebrate.

That’s just what Cordoníu have done, with the introduction of Cuvée Barcelona 1872. For this cava, they have used some of the same techniques from half a century ago. A system of layers (capas) were used to control the fermentation temperature of the musts. And when necessary fresh must was added to lower the temperature. This process was strictly managed to help improve the texture of the sparkling wine. In those days all of this happened in cement tanks covered with ceramic tiles or in large wooden kegs.

Today these materials are still used, but in conjunction with stainless steel vats, to add aromas and flavours to the base wine and subsequently to the final cava. Once the final blend of the base wines has been defined, the wine is bottled and racked while the second fermentation takes place followed by a period of ageing in contact with the lees of the yeasts. The wine spends at least 9 months in the winery. That is enough time to attain a balance between the fruity character, coming from the grapes, a richer expression contributed by the lees and the best possible ‘fizz’.

A special sparkling wine deserves a special bottle – and Codorníu Cuvée Barcelona comes presented in a beautiful bottle inspired by the typical stained glass windows of modernist Barcelona.

The perfect way to celebrate this Christmas and New Year, Codorníu Cuvée Barcelona is available at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose stores across the UK, RRP £12.99. I’ve also got one bottle to give away to a lucky London-Unattached reader.

All you need to do is to let me know in the comments below what are the three traditional grapes used to make Cava.

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